The purpose of this web site is to make the play scripts of Ben Josephson readily available at no cost. The intent behind the creation of this web site is to bring about the realization of these scripts on stage.
Scripts, not plays, are what is posted here. It is only in live performance that a play exists.
The plays that spring from these scripts will appeal to thoughtful free spirits who want entertainment that is worthy of them.
“Coming For A Visit,” “Never Mind The Wind,” “Time’s Price,” “The Property,” “A Couple Of Kids From Queens” and “Brevis” abide within the precincts of naturalism, while “What The Light Lights Up” gambols along naturalism’s fanciful periphery. Each of those seven dwells, too, within its own distinct American moment, while reverberating beyond. “Horace Whirley’s Woe,” “Problem Play; Or, Reductio,” and “Short Form” are broad comedies that inhabit other realms.
Every script tells a clear and engaging story; but the matter, in all cases, is bound up with character and theme. To outline plot, then, would miss the mark, so there are no synopses here. Only the attentive reader who has arrived at the end of the last page will be able to posit what, from his or her perspective, any particular play might be “about.”
The second page of each script, after the title page, lists characters, specifies time, and describes setting. This should help the inquisitive choose either to plunge in, or pass by.
For scripts in which race counts, character listings stipulate race. Casting, with respect to race, is otherwise up for grabs.
Reading a play script is not easy. Felicitous dialogue can smooth the way, but amounts to little in the absence of something more, and more elusive. There is no narrator, no guide. Nor are there yet actors to bring to each moment what, having immersed themselves in the material, they know from outside that moment. Only through effort and determination can the reader of a script begin to imagine the fleshing out.